The Faculty of Law is pleased to welcome back Professor Gail Henderson, who recently returned from Hong Kong where she participated in a conference on the "Harmonization of Cross-Strait Financial Regulation" at the University of Hong Kong, on the invitation of University of Alberta Faculty of Law alumni Dr. Berry Hsu. The conference brought together business law scholars from Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Canada with the goal of creating partnerships for future collaborative research. Professor Henderson presented a paper on recent changes to the Canadian government's policy regarding foreign investment by state-owned enterprises in the oil sands - a topic of particular interest to scholars from China - as part of the conference's "Investment" panel. She also had an opportunity to meet with faculty members from the University of Hong Kong's Faculty of Law and the Department of Real Estate and Construction.
(l-r) Dr. Ruoying Chen, Assistant Professor, Peking University Law School, Beijing, and Professor Gail Henderson, U of A Faculty of Law
While in Taiwan, Professor Harrington was also a guest of the College of Law at the National Cheng Chung University in Chia-yi county in southern Taiwan. Kindly hosted by Professor Liao Tsung-Sheng, an expert in international environmental law, Professor Harrington delivered a guest lecture on "Climate Change, Human Rights, and the Right to be Cold" discussing the campaign for a rights-based approach to address global warming and its impact on the Inuit peoples of the Arctic. She also took time to speak to students about pursuing graduate studies in law in Canada and met with faculty members to discuss future collaboration.
Taiwan is Alberta's tenth largest export market and the Province of Alberta has maintained a presence in Taipei since 1988. China, including Hong Kong, is Alberta's second largest export market. As Henderson explains: "Attending the conference in Hong Kong was a tremendous opportunity to make connections with legal scholars in Asia. The regulatory challenges in China and the surrounding regions are both very different and amazingly similar to those we face here in Canada." Harrington agrees about the importance of engaging with the Asia Pacific region, in both public or private law, having previously worked for the UNDP in Viet Nam and with the Canadian foreign service in Cambodia. "Conferences, faculty member exchanges, and guest lectures are also a great way to bring knowledge and different perspectives into the classroom," added Harrington, explaining that: "A student exchange adds a positive experience to that student's education, but faculty exchanges are a means to share those experiences within an entire class, including those students who cannot afford to go overseas due to work and family obligations."
For more information on the work of Professor Gail Henderson, see here
For more information on the work of Professor Joanna Harrington, see here